Able to purchase Explorer 40 in London

[MaineMan]

Wife happens to be in London and walked into a Rolex store. She asked if she was able to buy a 36mm Explorer for her husband's (me) 30th wedding anniversary and wanted it engraved on the back. They said they didn't have a 36, but did have a 40 available to purchase on the spot. Retail was 6,300 British Pounds. I told her not to get it because we had other things to purchase. My question really is, what would have been the price for the watch out the door? VAT of 20% and a 2% duty when declaring the watch? By doing some quick looking, I was estimating the watch to be $10,000+ USD by the time she left. Would have been nice though. She also didn't fabricate her story to purchase the watch.

[Mr Ben]

£6,300 includes VAT but that’s for the 36mm version.
The 40mm version is £6,650 which also already includes the VAT.

So the 40mm is in the ballpark of $8,800 plus whatever they charge you to get it into the US. If 2% is right, you should be just under $9k.

[MaineMan]

Thanks Mr Ben.

[Mr Ben]

No problem - someone else could maybe chip in on the 2%. It sounds cheap compared with what we would pay going the other direction.

I thought it was a bit more complicated than a flat rate and depended on how you filled in the paperwork and categorised the value. Just a vague recollection from previous threads though.

[Runfar]

wow that would have been a wonderful story too!

[worldofoyster]

Mr Ben is right

[NigeG]

Kind of a moot point as no watch was purchased but theoretically you should be able to get the VAT element refunded at the airport if exporting it to the US. Passport and Receipt is required.

No idea what the import duty might be across the pond or if the buyer then pays sales tax in whatever State they either enter the US or live


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[Michael T]

Originally Posted by NigeG

Kind of a moot point as no watch was purchased but theoretically you should be able to get the VAT element refunded at the airport if exporting it to the US. Passport and Receipt is required.

No idea what the import duty might be across the pond or if the buyer then pays sales tax in whatever State they either enter the US or live


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Too bad, but we have been able to have the VAT refunded at the airport, as I recall we needed our Passport at the store.

[BillA]

I don’t think it is one of the most difficult watches to buy in the US. I recently saw a FS post by one of TS asking about $200 over msrp for a lightly used piece. So unless you had to have it, I would check out US AD’s.

[VictorGMT]

Heads up on walking in with a watch upon return to the US.

I bought a Rolex and an Omega at what was a good currency adjusted price on a trip to Riyadh a few years ago, plus I had not been able to find the Rolex in the US recently.

At the time, I was the president of an exporting defense contractor. NO WAY I could risk a customs violation.

On the form, I wrote "Two New Stainless Steel Mechanical Watches". I was prepared to pay the duty (though it was difficult for me to estimate it).

Handed the form to the customs officer, he looked at the form looked at me and said "Have a nice day".

I think he was watching for a suitcase of live pythons or counterfeit Ozempic rather than my two watches.

YMMV.

[996marty]

I don’t think you can claim tax back from purchases in the UK anymore but happy to be corrected

[Mr Ben]

Yeah - I think they stopped the VAT refund in about 2020 - then talked about bringing it back but didn’t.

[NigeG]

There’s still VAT Refund Desks at LHR in all four operating terminals. Duty free shopping at the airport is no more but my understanding is you can still claim back the VAT element if you meet the criteria which is dependent on where you live and heap of other hoops to jump through


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[Oryx]

No VAT refunds available at the airport anymore. You can buy something at the ex VAT price if its shipped outside of the UK directly by the merchant.